the infinite playlist
by picturebookgirl
Summary: through music, stories are told, feelings are voiced; it is the universal language for expression. but can cam hear the message portrayed through all of the other chaotic noises before it's too late? for erickaboo R/R :D


**hullo, readers! this story is dedicated to ericka, because she is so super amazing! :D also for dez, tash, sydney, lisa and everybody else on ff, as per usual. echehehehehe (:**

**so this story is a continuum of 'when words fail, music speaks'. you don't really need to read that story to understand this one but it might be better if you do so you kinda get the gist of what happened before this.**

**oh, and **_disclaimed_. **duh.**

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**-[the infinite playlist]-**

...

..

.

_**(three); **_ottoman – vampire weekend

_**K**_risten _**G**_regory sat primly on the hard plastic chair in the badly lit cafeteria of Westcheste Academy at her usual table. She took out her reusable, very eco friendly plastic chopsticks out of her 'like, totally in style' black Prada handbag and opened the plastic packaging of her vegetarian sushi, ready to dig in.

"Kris!" Claire Lyons, her best friend, squealed and sat down next to her, with a funky smelling tuna sandwich in hand. Kristen smiled in acknowledgement and took a tiny bite of her sushi.

"So. I heard you've got the position of valedictorian locked down." Claire commented after taking a bite of her sandwich.

"Hopefully. I don't want to say anything too soon; after all, graduation is still two weeks away."

"Stop being so modest! You're the president of like, every club, you can get straight A's in your sleep, you play every sport that this school offers and jeezums. Do I need to say more?"

Kristen chuckled. "But still, Cam Fisher could get it."

"Fisher? He's got nothing on you. But speak of the devil..."

Cam Fisher walked into the cafeteria, loosening his school-issued tie from his neck. He ran his fingers through his dark hair before taking out his battered white iPod and changing the song as he stood in line for food.

Kristen's heart sped a little, remembering the little soiree they had in the library not so long ago. But to her dismay, it hadn't really done anything; they had swapped back their iPods and continued on with their lives.

The only thing that was different was Kristen's feelings about him.

Before, she hadn't even known his name and now, all she can think about is him. It was a total pain she just noticed him thisclose to graduation. In just a matter of a couple of weeks, she might never see him again; never have a chance to tell him how she felt about him.

And Kristen hated not having what she wanted.

.

_**(six);**_ young blood – the naked and famous

_**C**_am _**F**_ishersighed as "Heartbeat" by Remedy Drive began to blast in his ears, relieving painful memories of his ex-girlfriend. He and Massie Block had broken not short of a week ago, when he had caught her making out with Derrick Harrington, the school's resident manwhore, at Cam's fucking birthday party and in his own bedroom no less. And she still had the nerve to pretend what she did wasn't wrong.

"Pepperoni or cheese?" The lunch lady said, deadpanned, interrupting him as he changed his song. He quickly stuffed his iPod back in his pocket, leaving the song as it is and answered the lady.

"Pepperoni, please. Can I have that slice over there?" Cam pointed to the extra large slice on the left of the pan. He never understood why people just ate plain old cheese pizza; it was terribly boring and much too salty.

He took an apple and a carton of chocolate milk before picking up his tray and going over to the checkout, "Heartbeat" still playing in his ears. He quickly put the tray down and changed the song on his iPod before he burst into tears or do something equally as embarrassing in the middle of the cafeteria. As he did so, he looked up to find the checkout lady staring at him.

"Uh, what did you say?" Cam cringed. That was the downside to having your iPod in your ears all day; you miss what people say most of the time. Oh, and hearing loss but the volume he was listening his music at was hardly lethal.

"That would be seven fifty."

"Oh. OH, right. Sorry." Cam pulled out a ten and grabbed his change. He picked back up his tray and scanned the cafeteria for a seat. As he did so, a flash of blonde caught his eye; he turned back around just in time to see Kristen Gregory toss her head back and laugh at what her friend was saying to her.

Kristen. A sliver of nostalgia rolled through him as the song switched to "Beethoven's 5th Symphony" but passed as quickly as it came when he heard Landon Crane call out his name to sit at his table.

Kristen was way out of his league, anyway.

.

_**(one);**_ i want you so bad i can't breathe – ok go

_**K**_risten madly backspaced the sentence she had written, diminishing it down into an empty blank. It was the fifth attempt that night she had tried to write the perfect opening sentence to the introduction of her World History essay due in a mere three days time (the horror!) and she still had to do a calculus worksheet AND bio notes to do which were due in the next day.

But her mind, she realised, was not on schoolwork; it was on something else. Or some_one_ else, to be exact. As much as she would like to get him out of her mind, she couldn't.

And as much as she wanted it, she didn't have the guts to tell him how she really felt about him.

For the past few days, she had been thinking of ways to tell him how she felt about him the most subtle of ways. It had to be subtle enough that nobody else would get it except for him but not so subtle that he himself wouldn't get it.

No wonder Kristen couldn't concentrate on her homework.

She sighed and closed her MacBook shut, flopping face first onto the silver laptop and hurting her pointy nose in the process. She let out a loud groan of frustration before reaching up and turning on her iPod speakers, the sounds of Mozart instantly calming her down.

A gulp of water and a refill of her favourite mechanical pencil later, she sat back down on her swivel chair, ready to tackle those imposing calculus questions. Kristen actually almost (though not quite) felt relieved to be doing calculus since nothing on that sheet could be as hard or as frustrating as her current, real life dilemma.

.

_**(seven);**_ oh, girl – cut off your hands

'_**F**_uck' was the first word that came to Cam's mind when he found out that it was not him that was named valedictorian of the class.

"Congratulations!" Cam smiled at Kristen, who looked both shocked and pleased to see him. "You definitely deserved valedictorian."

"Thanks, Cam. You put up a good fight."

Kristen smiled her 1000 watt smile at him causing his stomach to feel funny. Thinking it was probably from some bad burrito he ate last night, he brushed it off and smiled back to her turning head.

It wasn't until he was walking to his next class that he realised he had Cheerios for dinner last night.

.

_**(five);**_ evacuate – the boxer rebellion

_**T**_he idea hit her like a ton of bricks in the middle of her World History class Kristen almost yelped in surprise. She actually did, causing the whole class to stare at her and for Mr Myner to glare at her for interrupting his boring speech on God knows what.

She ripped (quietly, of course) a piece of paper out of her notebook and began madly scribbling away possible ideas. For the rest of the lesson, she couldn't concentrate on Mr Myner's incoherent droning, anymore than usual, anyway, once again due to the though of Cam Fisher niggling away at her brain. He really could be the death of her.

After a few scribbling outs and sneaky looks at her iPod later, she had it. It was her masterpiece; the Mona Lisa to Da Vinci, the _Eiffel Tower_ to Gustave Eiffel, the 'Toxic' to Britney Spears and she had spent all class doing it. Not that she cared; she had the position of valedictorian locked in place, anyway.

"Miss Gregory, would you care to tell me the year that the Treaty of Versailles was collaborated and the date it was effective of?" Mr Myner sneered, his foot tapping away impatiently.

"June 28, 1919 was when it was signed and it was effective as of January 10, 1920." Kristen drawled, looking up from her notebook and smirked at Mr Myner, who had yet to catch her off guard. All he did was sniff at the answer before eagerly preying on his next victim.

Kristen wondered if she was ever going to catch Cam off guard.

.

_**(four);**_ vindicated – dashboard confessional

_**C**_am Fisher was falling in love. Already.

He came to this realisation when he realised that he couldn't bloody stop thinking about the damned girl. It was like, she was a zombie parasite and he was slowly turning into a little brainwashed Kristen zombie.

Holy shit, she was even turning him clinically crazy.

He didn't know how and he didn't know why, but he was and she was it. He didn't know if she even _remembered_ him from their library encounter but he had a super cunning plan to test it out. He would do anything it takes, even if it meant breaking his most prized possession, his white iPod classic.

Looking around to make sure that nobody could ruin his plan, he walked down the nearly empty hallway, approaching The Target. Oh-so-stealthily, he 'accidentally on purpose' smashed into her lithe shoulder, 'accidentally on purpose' dropping The Bait, his white iPod, on the linoleum floor. A quick, awkward apology later, he quickly shuffled off before she could say anything.

But alas, to his dismay, she comes running up to him and courteously gives him back his iPod, before dashing off to some important meeting or something, not even giving him the chance to talk to her about anything, especially not about music or swapping iPods again.

He cursed silently to himself, feeling the ticking time slipping away and the door of hope closing on him faster and faster.

.

_**(eight);**_ us – regina spektor

_**I**_t was simple. How had Kristen and Cam met in the first place? Through the magic of music (well, it was actually because he had been playing his music too loud in the first place but that's a fact that can be overlooked), of course. He had introduced her that good music doesn't have to necessarily be classical; it was him that opened her eyes to the whole genre of rock and alternative music.

And of course it couldn't be more fitting to express her feelings through music since it apparently speaks when words tend to fail, which was the case here.

Throughout World History, she had been compiling a list of eight songs, eight specific songs that would hopefully speak out her feelings for him. The message was obvious enough if you looked and studied the songs closely but to the passing eye, it would be just another playlist.

Kristen Gregory wasn't called 'Queen Geek' for no reason.

She hoped with all her heart that, although he apparently just missed the spot of valedictorian, he would be smart enough to figure out what she was trying to say with her playlist.

.

_**(two);**_ last words – the real tuesday weld

_**I**_t was a surprise finding that CD jammed in his mailbox, from Kristen Gregory no less. He definitely hadn't expected anything from her, especially after the little incident; he thought she would have thought he was rude or something.

He was itching to get out of the stuffy blue graduation robe but his mother kept insisting on 'one more picture!' of him in the awful robe. After about an hour of having flash in his face and arms around his neck all around different parts of their house, he retired into the study room, having stripped off the robe into tattered shorts and a clean(ish) t-shirt and powered up his battered computer, waiting the excruciatingly long time for the old machine to run before slipping the disk in and playing it.

Once, twice, three times.

But Cam didn't get it. It was a nice playlist and all, but what was so special about it? Especially the hidden track; what was that for? Why go through all the trouble? What did this even mean?

Ignoring the whines from his little sister who wanted to go on neopets or some shit like that, he transferred the playlist onto his iPod before taking it into his room and replaying the songs.

He lay on the bed, staring at the track list on the CD cover. There had to be a reason she chose these songs; they were definitely not random. She should have known that he detested John Mayer and Regina Spektor with a passion since that was one of the first things he told her that when they had swapped iPods, making sure she didn't have any of their songs on hers.

And then Cam Fisher had his lightbulb moment. The thought hit him and his heart soared. He needed to talk to Kristen now. Two minutes ago.

And he knew exactly where to find her.

.

_**(hidden track);**_ stop that train – john mayer

**stop**

_**K**_risten sighed as her overly teary mother suffocated her with her monstrous hug; she would have thought that parents would be _happy_ to send their kids away to college and not having to bother about them again.

"Mum, I'll be fine. I can always contact Aunt Mandy if anything goes bad." Kristen consoled her mum.

"I can't believe my little girl is actually going to go to Yale. Yale! Can you believe that?"

"I'm so proud of you, Kris." Her dad said gruffly, giving her a quick kiss on her head.

"_All passengers going from New York City to New Haven, Connecticut please be at the designated platform now."_

"I have to go now, mum." It was then at that moment, Kristen realised two things; A) that she was going to be leaving her parents, the two people she has relied on for the past 18 years, which was a terribly scary though and B) that Cam Fisher's smartness was totally overrated.

"Ok. Bye, sweetie!" Her parents gave her one more hug before letting her go. She waved back at them, feeling tears in her own eyes.

"Bye mum! Bye dad! Miss you already!" She shouted over the rush of the station. Before she changed her mind and ran back into their arms, she turned around and quickly walked away, tears falling out of her eyes for more than one reason.

.

**that**

_**M**_eanwhile, Cam was thinking to himself how fucking complicated girls were. Couldn't she just, you know, have told him instead of putting it in complicated codes or something?

He sighed, frustrated, as he heard the overhead message. It was obvious that was her train; everybody in the world knew that she was going to go to Yale and that she was leaving today for it.

He got to the designated platform before a ticket collector stopped him in his tracks.

"Ticket, please."

Oh shit. "Mr, I don't need to take the train! All I need is to talk to someone in there and I promise I'll get straight out."

It had been a long day for him and he's fallen for that line one too many times. "No ticket, no entry."

Cam groaned in frustration as he dashed to the ticket counter and quickly tried to buy a ticket. The lady looked at him with fake condescension.

"Sorry, all sold out."

Cam nodded, a laugh burbling out of him. Of fucking course it was.

"Ok, can I get your cheapest ticket to anywhere, then?"

The lady looked at him, skeptical, before issuing him a ticket to Boston, Massachusetts. He quickly paid for it and sprinted as fast as he could back to the platform, ready to show the ticket man his 'ticket'. But alas, the train was already chugging away; he had bought a ticket for nothing.

.

**train**

_**K**_risten sighed as she the train started to close its doors and looked out the window to see Grand Central station one more time for a very long time. She let the tears fall out of her eyes freely now; there was no reason to stop them anymore.

She was about to put in her headphones and crack open her reading book when her phone buzzed unexpectedly, signalling a text message. She felt a jolt as she clicked on the read button, the train slowly starting to move.

**CamF:** Look out your window.

Puzzled, she turned around and looked out her window and saw Cam running along side the train as it was already moving, He screamed something to her, but she couldn't make out what he was saying.

Cam, on the other side of the glass, swore, frustrated. He didn't want to text her the message; that would be totally impersonal.

But another genius idea struck him.

Still running alongside the train, he whipped out the CD case he had given her and waved it around fervently, slowly mouthing his message again. She had better get It soon because the train was going to be out of his reach in a few precious seconds.

But as soon as he whipped out the CD case, the look on her face told him that she knew. She knew exactly what he was saying; she knew exactly what he meant. So he finally let go; he stopped running and let the train speed away, away from him.

At that moment, his emotions were like a kaleidoscope of different colours; he had never felt so happy and so angry and about five billion other emotions all at the same time before. He wanted to rip down the whole Grand Central Station but he also felt an inner peace, something he had not felt in a long time.

A jumbled mess, he walked away from the platform, with his hair dishevelled, his breath short and his heart collage of disaster, but exactly where it belongs.

.

_fin_

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**oh my gosh i really hated the ending. i actually had no idea what i was going to do so i just chucked in a few lines of crap. anyway, hope you guys enjoyed that xD **

**ok, so, the message was obvious but how did cam inference that from the playlist? one clue; look at all the songs and put the in numerical order (: if you guys get stuck, pm me or something haha xD**

**-picturebookgirl**


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